Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Mon, 01 Nov 1999 12:20:28 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 31 Oct 1999, Maylee Noah wrote:
> I have been experimenting with gum bichromate without hardening the
> gelatin sizing and the results look nice. What will I gain if I use
> formalin or chrome alum in the sizing? I am using Fabriano Uno, which
> I believe has a fair amount of internal sizing. Does that make a
> difference?
>
Maylee, various methods and combos are so various, it's hard to make an
overall generalization, but my sense of the situation & my own tests
suggest the following:
If the gelatin isn't hardened, it will wash off in developing soaks much
more quickly than if hardened. You don't say what your normal printing
method is, but if you do several coats, odds are you won't have much size
left in subsequent ones.
Which leads me to ask, did you test the Uno completely unsized against
sized without hardener? For just one coat, you may do at least as well
with NO added size. I found (in the very few tries I've had a chance to
make with it) that the Uno takes gum wonderfully for one coat with no
added size. How it would be later without added size I don't know.
However, my tests of two different papers (Rives BFK vs. an Arches cover)
showed that Knox gelatin UNHARDENED stained more than the paper with no
size added. However this was testing against paper that had never been wet
and shrunk -- when you do that the plain paper stains more, as the surface
size from mfr is washed off and the nap raised. Would even unhardened size
perhaps be some improvement in the NEXT coat, or would it by then have
washed off ???? Who can say??? In other words, overall generalizations may
not, so to speak, hold water all the way down the line.
However it is also said that gelatin being an organic compound, a food, in
fact, will invite tiny organisms to lunch if not hardened. I haven't seen
it happen, but then all my gelatin is hardened... Conservators also warn
against unhardened gelatin.
In other words, hardening is no big deal, and in no case makes matters
worse. I wouldn't skip it.
Judy
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